Washington gets ready to ask Google if it's evil

Google chairman Eric Schmidt / CBS/Getty Images

Get your popcorn ready and pull up a seat. In a few hours, Google's Eric Schmidt will sit down across from a panel of U.S. Senators investigating whether Google abuses its dominance on the Web.

We'll take a wild guess and suggest that Schmidt, the company's former chief executive and current executive chairman, will reject any such charge. In fact, according to a copy of his written testimony, Schmidt is going to portray Google's success as inextricably linked with its determination to put consumer interests first. "Keeping up requires constant investment and innovation," according to Schmidt, "and if Google fails in this effort users can and will switch. The cost of going elsewhere is zero, and users can and do use other sources to find the information they want."

CBS News: Watch hearing webcast here (Starts 2 PM ET)
Google: Facts about Google and competition

That's the boilerplate stuff and Schmidt, a polished presenter, is going to have to be at his best when it's time to go off script. He can count Google rivals Nextag, Yelp and Expedia offering a starkly different portrayal before the same Senate panel and how Schmidt handles himself could go a long way toward influencing future moves by the government. The Federal Trade Commission is already looking into antitrust complaints made by Google's competition. Schmidt was a senior exec with Sun Microsystems in the 1990s when Sun and a clutch of other Silicon Valley companies worked behind the scenes to push the Justice Department to go after Microsoft and he certainly is keen to avoid a similar mano-a-mano slug fest with the trustbusters.

On the surface, at least, it shouldn't be much of a stretch for Schmidt to convince the Senators that Google plays by the rules. But the political theater is more for the television cameras. The question is come down to whether it's going to make a whit of difference to regulators already on the case.

Also see:

ZDNet: Google goes to Capitol Hill: Messaging wars next
ZDNet: How evil is Google? Senators want to know
CNET: Google's Schmidt faces Senate grilling today
ZDNet: What's at stake in antitrust case?

[petercaoph]

Until this case could be clarified to the public and concurred at authorities, Eric schmidt and Sebastian Thrun's side would remain a menace to human society:
================================
Google's Eric Schmidt along with a Stanford Computer Science professor Sebastian Thrun had involved into crimes which had endangered human lives. Schmidt and Thrun's side had murdered Stanford student May Zhou and they had plotted a murder on me as well, during their fight with Stanford to threaten me and to terrorize Stanford people. Schmidt and Thrun had not paid for their crimes so far. But this case is regarding to people's lives, and when it regards to people's lives, there should not be any compromise nor any dubious or obscure points left.

more details Look-inside-dumbfounded [ http://******.com/BsEnQ4 ] ...and it did happen as Eric Schmidt predicted so far, that police did not find out who murdered Stanford student May Zhou [ http://www.*********** ], which is very scary ... Schmidt side told me: if they can't win the case at judicial authorities, they could take my life as easy as getting rid of a bug ... it is problems in Stanford Computer Science Department with their Professor Sebastian Thrun's case that led to May Zhou's death ... who actually setup order in Stanford Computer Science Department? ... Thrun, Schmidt, Scheler, and Thrun's bosses in Stanford Computer Science departmet are all in debt to Stanford student May Zhou's death.

--- An unheard of sandal in history of college education.

When I disclosed his crimes, Eric Schmidt ran out of grounds and publicly sent me life threatening message [ http://******.com/dsyyGp ]

[noname2138]

When people are able to post any type of opinion about a business on google, without proof, and with no legal recourse, that isn't ethical. Also, the highest bidder is on the "top" of any search.

[TexFandango]

You are a perfect example of the dumbing down of America. It would be unethical for Google to censor the comments of you or anyone else. Besides, if a search engine company had to verify every comment posted about every company or person, it would require tens of thousands of lawyers and researchers. It couldn't be done, and the world would be bereft of any search engine, whether it was Google or Yahoo or any other. Oh, and if you can come up with a financial model that will support search engine development and operations that doesn't involve 'payment for placement', by all means put up your own money and run it like a charity. Or perhaps your idea is to have the government operate it with taxpayer dollars?

[TexFandango]

Let's me understand this: A bunch of Senators - most of whom have never created a company or a job in their lives - are going to interrogate a company for the crime of being wildly successful. Google has created employment for thousands, value for millions, and is one of the best performing stocks on Wall Street. Never mind banks and brokerage houses that over-leveraged themselves with their customers' money and needed taxpayer bailouts to survive, it's Google that's never taken money from the government that's being investigated. Your average Congressman loathes (and fears?) entrepreneurs and companies that succeed independent of government support. Another example of our Congress at work.

[newsworthy8]

Yes, definately they do, even with the small peanuts like the average citizen.